A simpler way of living

I just heard this on the radio a while ago. I know you’ve heard it before. It goes like this: “and we saw these wonderful people in <insert name of shithole country here>, who live such a simple lifestyle and were so thankful for the aid we were giving, and so warm, and so friendly, and it really teaches you something about our frenetic western lifestyle.”

Yes, yes, our western lifestyle is fast-paced, and technological, and we’re not in touch with nature, and we’re not thankful for the simple things. But if these people are living such a wonderful existence, then why do they need our help?

I’ll tell you why: it’s because that wonderful simple slow-paced existence of theirs isn’t getting the job done. Reactionaries out there can rail against the modern fast-paced western lifestyle, but that lifestyle gets the job done, and with enough left over to spare that we can actually send stuff over to those simple people.

Don’t be ashamed of western civilization, people. Yes, we’ve made mistakes: slavery, nuclear proliferation, chemical warfare, and even Michael Bay movies. But if the whole world were like these "simple people", we wouldn’t even know what a virus is. We’d still be sacrificing goats when our children get sick. No thanks.

One Response to A simpler way of living

One thing I believe many of these people who look at the Third-World farmers and think, “Oh, the Simple Life!” miss is the fact that for these people, the act of maintaining the simple life, IS the simple life. In other words, unlike here in the West, where you can work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, (usually only about half of your time spent awake per day), the work of maintaining the farm consumes an enormous amount of time.